What’s in a library drop box? Engineering students learn the principles of good human design

In a multi-year collaboration between the University Libraries and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, mechanical engineering students gained practical, real world experience. The project? Design and construct a book drop for the Gemmill Engineering, Math & Physics Library. This hands-on experience gave students a chance to apply what they are learning outside the classroom in a partnership that improved Libraries services.

Gemmill Library doesn’t have an internal book drop, a place where patrons can quickly and conveniently return materials from any of the six Libraries locations on campus. Librarians saw this as an opportunity to solve a problem and while providing an opportunity for engineering students to gain practical project experience. They applied for an internal grant and reached out to Engineering Professor Dan Riffell to see what solutions CU’s engineering graduate students could offer through the workshop program Design for Community (D4C). D4C is a group of engineering faculty and students dedicated to designing, testing, refining, and developing products to prepare future engineers for the demands and expectations of industry.

The Libraries needed a quiet, efficient and convenient dropbox that would allow users to return books. “We wanted the book drop to be simple to use, mobile, attractive and also promote CU pride,” said Rebecca Kuglitsh, director of the Libraries Branches and Services team. “We went through several iterations before we landed on the final design.” One requirement for the project was meeting the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design and Guidance. The final report mentions that “[Students] spent a lot of time researching the ADA requirements and designing around these restrictions so that everyone could experience the full extent of the book drop’s interactions.”

Throughout the project, students developed several stylistic possibilities for the book drop. One design, inspired by the aesthetics of steampunk, had gears that moved as books were returned. However, some of these designs were impractical or did not fit within the scope of the project. The final report states, “over the course of the semester, we slowly chipped away at the mechanical components, replacing or removing them to simplify the design and prioritize manufacturability, longevity, and quiet operation.”

In this report, authored by Nolan Brunner, Peter Daichman, Lowell Glovsky and Sam Vallo the students noted, “in lecture, Prof. Riffell mentioned that projects decelerate as they get closer to completion, and we saw firsthand why that happens. At this stage it was no longer time for idealistic designs, instead we had to make hard decisions to find out what would work.”

^{The final design of the book drop and construction photos.}

For Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Lowell Glovsky, working on the Book Drop project for the Gemmill Library was a valuable experience in considering the contextual restrictions in design. “The library presented various environmental constraints, such as noise limitations, electrical availability, operational simplicity, and other factors that my team carefully considered in our design," he said.

The final book drop design was constructed from recovered wood used for pipelines. “Students discover in the practice of designing and making good human design just how much work is behind the seemingly simple objects in our day to day lives,” said Riffell. “The design process takes students beyond the surface and, you’ll never be able to look at inanimate objects the same way again.”

The project took multiple years to complete and at one point was derailed by the pandemic. The completed book drop is now inside the west entrance of Norlin Library while Gemmill Library is in a renovation process.